Paddy

Hello, Very sorry indeed to hear your daughter lost her horse. Having lost 2 horse's this week. One of my customer's paso rescue, and a friend of my wife's quarter horse barrel horse, both thru colic. I made this heart from the fire to give to the owner, 'R'. I'd like to do another for the little fella (paso) too - his life was much harder, although, he enjoyed a great period of free life with lot's of healthy buddies, sadly his past neglect caught up with him (not his feet). Rose from Fire. Regards, Paddy Falvey AFA CF

Hello, Being a working farrier and blacksmith. Horseshoes today are made from mainly 4 types of material ;- 1) Mild steel, standard keg shoes, most common. Only gets bright if its polished up / hammer finished or buffed up with a wheel, or sometimes get a glaze from the factory in the processing, depends what brand they are. 2) Aluminum (various grades T6 6061, or sturdier or softer stuff), common to racehorses mainly, but popular in mainstream hunter/jumpers, NB shoes,some western stuff. Then there are all the therapeutic cut shoes. 3) Titanium, were for awhile, popular - these would be shiny finish and very light. They are as hard as anything, and they 'sting' feet, the strength of the material is quite uncomfortable for a horse. Maybe these are the shiny shoes you have. If so, recycle them and get some money, as I doubt many farriers would use them. 4) Plastic shoes - no comment. Cheers, Paddy Falvey AFA CF paddysforge.com

Trez, Got a local job for you that is out of my scale and in your realm of thought / expertise. A souflett holder. Please can you email me paddysforge@yahoo.com Best Regards, Paddy Falvey

Thanks Guys, I will go for quick, simple and easy - fireweld the ends and twist them up. I like the jigs though and will modify a bracket I have for that if I can find the lump of metal. Trez many thnaks for the offer mate. I'd really like to come over to see your forge, my number is on my website - paddysforge.com. I'll be forging tomorrow and will have an item or two made up. Will post photots. Thanks, Paddy

Dear All, I have an interesting pot rack to make. 5' by 2', suspended from a high ceiling above a central kitchen worktop area. I'm trying out some simple twists to make the the kind of chain links from the ceiling to the potrack and the customers eyes lit up whe I said a triple twist for one of the double eye links that will go from 4 of the suspended arms that go from an eye bolt from celing to pot rack - pure ruin when simple would probably have done - but simple I ain't. I'm thinking about 12" links. I said (quite ridiculously) i would try a triple twist, from 1/4" round stock. I have made a sample item - simply cold hammerred a 1/4", 25" rod to a circle, welded it, to form a circle, put in the gas forge and squashed it together, and then took another heat and put a simple twist from on eye to the the other eye - nice but not really enough for my effort - too simple. looked OK, the heats could have ot a better even twist though. I want to do a triple twist. i.e. put another rod in and twist it into place, probably mousetail ends for this rod. Problem is I only have 2 hands, a leg vise and a few pairs of tongs to do it. I'm not much a metal twist weaving genius. Has anybody any tips on how to handle this process?. Many thanks, Paddy Falvey CF paddysforge.com

A western horseshoe door hook and a hand towel holder. Customer wanted cowboy theme. Paddy Falvey CF paddysforge.com

I went to HCT UK ( to take the pre-farriers blacksmith course) a few years ago. Look at the diploma course, 2 years for Blacksmithing. This was seemingly the most practical based approach to getting practical skills for smithing up to a level where you can make something really saleable. Its a great place to learn blacksmithing in a beautiful area of the UK. The course members and tutors were a great bunch of friendly people. The skills there to be learnt are exceptional. The 2nd year students were making their first gates and their own pieces, having done basic forging skills in year 1. Good luck and Work Hard wherever you end up Paddy Falvey CF (AFA)

Beautiful wing Would make a lovely key ring. Paddy

Some more photos of the flowers. The flowers don't look too bright from that angle I certainly agree. The calla has a tip turned over at the top, and when I painted it, I thought, yep that wasn't too clever. The gerbera flower is necked at that angle, as they do in real life, but they always look plastic and yep, it is on the list of improvements also.... The leaf curve was very basic. The 2 leaves at the bottom need expanding skyward by a factor of two and half probably. Where's my baseball bat?. I'm making another one for the in-laws as an advert. The other negative "anomolie" in the market, apart from ;- baseball bats, postal regs, mass produced crap, ;- are the rules and regulations of housing committees. I have a brother in law who wants a hand forged stand, but is not allowed. He has a mundane wooden thing that costs $115 every 2 yrs or so, for the lawn maintanance to come around and paint. Cheers, Paddy paddsyforge.com

Good Morning, Well, made the mail box stand. Learnt how awkward 109" of 5/8" square is to forge in a 12'x15' shed!. Going by this example I'd make another one a bit differently. I chalked out my plan and the size of stock made it very awkward to get it to the table to match it up, so the scroll was a bit free-hand. Eejit moment!. Should've been fire welding, yes. My poor excuse - Most bits of metal I get to work alot are about 10" to 16" so this was entirely new learning curve. The obvious problems not being considered first. I got the gas torch out and fiddled and ended up with this. Next time, I'd start with a shorter piece of stock for getting a much better scroll, then make 2 separate upright curves with maybe flat stock forged to a leaf spike, some multiple rivets to the scroll. Or use some pipes filled with sand and go for a lighter weight bulkier item. It may get me demolishing it well before the scrawny little college kid gets to it with a baseball bat. The wife has decided she likes it though. Paddy Falvey paddysforge.com

Dear All, Has anybody made an interesting post for the mail box?. Couldn't find any interesting blacksmith made designs on the internet and wondered why not. Tomorrow and maybe a day or two, I'm planning to make one. With maybe a weathervane type attachment, we'll see. Something groovy. I went on the US postal website for the regulation heights and it says pretty much the post can be anything you like, as long as its a certain height above the road and nothing out infront when the door's closed. Theres plenty of novelty boxes out there it seems, Some look OK, Some are crazy, thats good to see. It's screaming out for some blackmsith ingenuity, and some concrete ofcourse so nobody walks off with it!!. I'd be keen to see what people think. An ideal project. Cheers, Paddy paddysforge.com

Hey there, I went to Hereford for a year and did the pre-farriers NVQ level 2 forging certificate. Just wish i could go and do more there as it was an amazing place. The farrier / blacksmithing teaching was quite brilliant and alot of fun. Frank, the hardies and dies you mentioned may be swedge and fullering bottom tools for flat bar stock to be fullered / creased for improving traction. Tool and fullered shoes. The grooves in the leg vise for a farrier?, maybe could be used to pull over a source for a clip or set a tight angle for a heel calk, but that tool would not exist way back when as techniques were more traditional, you just don;t see that. It would be very handy for turning rod at tight angles for straw roof pegs, instead of opneing and shutting a leg vise. Bolts Wes, yes ofcourse. Those nippers look really good. Especially when the horse decides to stand on the air pipe and that goes pop and then you get to go airborne for a while. I just can't see them replacing a pair of GE's somehow?. They look really cack handed and heavy, you just can't see well to nip carefully. For cattle oh yes. Cheers, paddy